Another fracking earthquake in Kansas

[pipoman]

I woke up at 3 am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so made coffee. While scanning DU, etc. A towel hook hanging over my bathroom door began making a vibrating sound. I checked the furnace, it wasn't on. The pets were sleeping, wife sleeping. ..then it quit. About 10 minutes later it happened again. We live in the open plains in the country with no traffic for miles. I told my wife when she got up and didn't think another thing about it. ..she just heard on the radio there was an earthquake in Anthony KS about 80 miles from here. Anthony is in the heart of fracking country. ..iirc, it is on the vast Hugoton natural gas field.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000th35

I have lived on the plains for 50 years and not even heard of earthquakes until recently. When will people wakeup and decide it isn't worth it? When Anthony disappears into a gorge?

[atreides1]

1. When will people wake up?

When a large city falls into a hole and hundreds of thousands of people die...that's when they'll wake up!

But it still won't be enough for the corporate owned politicians, who like their masters, only see humans as a resource, one that can be easily replenished!

[DFW]

2. When an earthquake shatters a runway at DFW while a 777 is landing

Not an unimaginable scenario, if fracking-caused seismic activity in our region continues.

[FogerRox]

4. DFW had an earthquake at the airport, causing a plane to abort a landing

Fracking waste water injection wells, right next to the DFW runways.

[DFW]

5. It's just a matter of time before a major disaster happens

And lawyers for the oil companies are surely ready and waiting to present evidence that there is no proof their clients are responsible.

[yeoman6987]

3. When Scientists prove that it is caused from fracking

I don't think we are there yet. Working on it I am sure.

[FogerRox]

6. 71 quakes in the last month

http://earthquaketrack.com/p/united-states/kansas/recent

[Igel]

7. This one?

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000th35#summary

The problem will be the depth of the focus, not the location of the epicenter.

3.1 mi deep may not be fantastically deep, but you have to think about where the fracking is occurring. If it's in the top 1/2 mile, you have to figure out what's happening in the topmost layers that could trigger an event 2 1/2 miles lower. Fracking creates hundreds or thousands of earthquakes--but those large enough to be felt by more than a couple of people are rare.

Kansas does have earthquakes, as does Oklahoma. Most of KS quakes are in the NE. Oklahoma's had a few just over the border from central KS. They're just rare.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/kansas/history.php
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/kansas/seismicity.php


The one near Anthony looks to have been in the Sedgwick basin, not the Anadarko basin. http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Oil/primer09.html


There are structures and faults in the area near Anthony that predate the onset of fracking. There's an anticline to the west a little ways, and a couple of minor faults to the NE.
http://soar.wichita.edu/bitstream/handle/10057/2316/GRASP5_21.pdf?sequence=1

The area's mostly known for oil production. Perhaps reduction of overpressure is a possible contributing cause. Disposal wells for something 3.1 mi deep might be a problem. Can't find info on how deep the oil drilling is in the area, but it's mostly in Mississippian rock strata (but centered on the peaks on either side of the anticline, naturally). Can't find much useful about hydrofracturing in the area.

[Takket]

8. Don't worry

OPEC in the matter of a few weeks has destroyed fracking and keystone too. It won't help your situation unfortunately, but this is a problem that won't be spreading any farther.